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Eric
: I've never seen a human this close before. He's very handsome, isn't he?” : ―Ariel, as she looks at Eric 'Prince Eric '''is the deuteragonist of the 1989 Disney animated feature film, ''The Little Mermaid. The character is based on the "prince" character of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Mermaid", but adapted by writer Roger Allers for Disney's film. Background Despite being of royalty, Eric is an accomplished mariner who is often seen partaking in various duties aboard ships in his own fleet. Eric is a skilled helmsman as he is seen steering ships in both the 1989 film and its sequel. This could be due to the fact that Eric's kingdom is coastal and most of the subjects make their livings by shipping and fishing, and as such it is expected that the rulers be skilled in maritime trades. Eric spends much of his free time out at sea, fishing, going on explorations, or even taking sail to celebrate his birthday. Grimsby, his servant and personal confidant, often accompanies him on his voyages, and disapproves of Eric's stubbornness and lack of interest in potential wives. In spite of this, Eric is a hopeless romantic, and appears to be rather dreamy, believing his true love certainly exists, but simply hasn't been found by the earliest points of the film. After being rescued by a mysterious girl with a beautiful voice, he immediately falls in love and makes it his primary goal to find her and marry her, feeling deep gratitude for her actions. Eric would later prove his commitment towards romance by risking his life at the climax for the safety of Ariel, proclaiming he's lost her once, and refuses to lose her again. Physical Appearance Eric has a short black hair and blue eyes. His primary appearance is a white long sleeve collared shirt and the sleeves are rolled up into a cuffs, blue pants with a red obi and black boots with light blue folded sleeves. When he was saved by Ariel from drowning and ends up in the shore, his clothes are in shreds as his long sleeve collared shirt was loose and his pants are also in shreds which reaches below his knees and he was barefoot implying that his boots are destroyed after being saved by Ariel while in the ocean. At the time he was hypnotized by Vanessa which is Ursula in disguise, he wears a royal outfit. It is a blue long sleeve royal uniform with a red sash at the center, white pants and black boots. As the wedding was disrupted by Scuttle and his marriage with Ariel in the end of the film. He wears a white long sleeve royal uniform with a golden sash, blue royal pants with golden outlines and black boots. During the battle against Ursula, he incorporates his primary outfit and his royal outfit which is his white long sleeve collared shirt and his red obi from his primary outfit and his royal pants with golden outlines and black boots from his royal outfit. Appearance The Little Mermaid In his first appearance, Eric, along with his man-servant Grimsby and crew of sailors are enjoying another day sailing out in the sea. Eric overhears sailors talking aboutKing Triton, ruler of the merpeople, which makes him curious, but Grimsby brushes it off as nonsense. One night, as Eric is celebrating his birthday out in the sea, it is revealed through a dialogue between him and his man-servant Grimsby that the kingdom is eagerly awaiting the day that Eric marries. Eric has turned down at least one princess as a prospective bride, the princess of Glowerhaven, claiming that he is still looking for the right girl. When a storm hits and lightning sets the ship ablaze, everyone manages to escape to the lifeboat, but Eric, climbs back onto the burning ship to save his pet sheepdog, Max who was been trapped. He manages to toss the dog into the sea, but he is stuck aboard due to his foot trapped on a hole as the fire reaches some explosives on the ship, causing the ship to explode. When Ariel finds an unconscious Eric in the water, she drags him to shore and sings to him, but before he can fully regain consciousness, Max and Grimsby arrive, forcing Ariel to dive underwater. Eric tells Grimsby that the former has been saved by a girl with the most beautiful singing voice, but Grimsby, thinking Eric has swallowed too much seawater, carries him back to his palace. When Eric is seen again, he is on the beach outside his palace with Max, still haunted by Ariel's singing voice and playing Ariel's song on his flute, and has been searching the kingdom for her. But then Max starts to bark excitedly and run off, making Eric follow the dog, who leads him to Ariel, who has been transformed into a human by Ursula. He initially finds her familiar, but her lack of a voice, due to Ariel trading her voice for a pair of legs, makes him think that she cannot be the girl who rescued him. However, he brings her back to his palace and they spend time together. After some advice from Grimsby, Eric takes Ariel on a tour of his kingdom. That evening, the two go on a boat ride in which Sebastian leads a group of animals in a chorus of "Kiss the Girl" in an attempt to get Eric to fall in love with Ariel and kiss her, so that she can remain human. Just as the two come close to kissing, Ursula's eels, Flotsam and Jetsam intervene by tipping over their boat. That night, as Eric plays Ariel's song on his flute, Grimsby advises Eric to forget about his "dream girl", and focus on the one "warm, caring, and right before his eyes". He apparently does so, throwing his flute into the sea. But before he can approach Ariel, Ursula, who has transformed herself into a human girl namedVanessa arrives and uses Ariel's voice trapped in her seashell to hypnotize Eric into believing she is the girl who saved his life, causing him to forget all about Ariel. Eric almost marries Vanessa, but before the vows are completed, Ariel's seagull friend Scuttle learns Vanessa's true identity and leads the same group of birds and sea creatures that sung to Ariel and Eric on a mission to stop the wedding while Ariel, with the help of her companion Flounder, swim to the wedding ship. During the chaos, the seashell around Vanessa's neck is smashed, freeing Ariel's voice, which is restored to its owner. Eric, who has come out of the spell, realizes that Ariel is the girl he has been looking for. But before they can kiss, the sun sets, and Ariel is transformed back into a mermaid. Vanessa transforms back into Ursula, takes Ariel as her prisoner, and dives into the ocean. Determined not to lose Ariel again, Eric goes after them, diving into the sea to help Ariel. He hits Ursula with a harpoon, and Ursula instructs her pet eels Flotsam and Jetsam to strangle Eric, but Flounder and Sebastian extricate him. Ursula attempts to finish Eric off with a trident she has gotten from King Triton, but due to Ariel's intervention, she accidentally destroys her eels instead. Eric and Ariel attempt to escape from an enraged Ursula, who enlarges herself into a giant. Ursula then separates Eric from Ariel as she traps the mermaid princess in the bottom of a whirlpool Ursula has created. While Ursula is concentrating on finishing Ariel, Eric climbs onto one of the shipwrecks that has surfaced as a result of the whirlpool, takes control of the ship and steers it toward Ursula who is about to destroy Ariel by using the trident. Suddenly, Eric kills Ursula by plunging the ship's splintered bow through her belly, saving Ariel, as well as the entire underwater kingdom of Atlantica, and ending her reign of terror in the process. Ursula, while also being backfired by the energy of the trident, uses her last breaths to bring the ship down with her, but Eric jumps off in time. Eric manages to reach the shore, and collapses from exhaustion. When he wakes up, he sees Ariel, transformed back into a human (courtesy of King Triton), and the two embrace finally kissing for the first time. The film ends with their wedding, at which Eric and Ariel exchange vows, and Triton accepts Eric as his son-in-law. ''The Little Mermaid'' (TV series) The prequel television series is set before the events of the 1989 film and focuses almost entirely on Ariel. However, Eric makes brief cameo appearances in three episodes. Preserving the continuity where Eric and Ariel meet in the original film, the two never meet each other in the television series, despite appearing side-by-side. The first cameo occurs in the Season 1 episode "Thingamajigger". This episode implies that Eric plays a significant role in altering Ariel's perception of humans. Through dialogue, Ariel says that despite her fascination with human things, she is fearful of humans because of the stories she's been told since she was little. But when she witnesses Eric release a trapped dolphin from a net, she starts doubting the truth of those stories. To avoid messing up the film's story, Ariel does not see Eric's face, and Eric does not see Ariel at all. Eric plays an indirect role in the episode's conclusion; when the Evil Manta acquires the titular "Thingamajigger" - really an old boot that the sea creatures mistake for a weapon as a cannonball strikes a location where it is 'pointing' - Ariel realizes that the objects are powerless when Eric loses one of his boots under a pier and tosses the other one away, allowing Ariel to trick the Evil Manta into fleeing by using both boots to force him to stand down. In the Season 3 episode "Scuttle" - which also marks Ariel's first meeting with Scuttle - Ariel and her friends stop a crew of pirates from boarding a vessel, which turns out to be Eric's royal barge. Ariel does not see Eric at all, but Eric briefly glimpses Ariel from a distance, though Grimsby brushes it off as his imagination. In a later Season 3 episode "Ariel's Treasures", Eric is seen briefly aboard a ship, from which a human item falls and is later collected by Ariel. The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea In the 2000 direct-to-video sequel, Eric is a supporting character. Although happily married to Ariel, the couple have a problem in protecting their daughter Melody from Ursula's sister, Morgana. Morgana blames everyone on board Eric's ship for killing Ursula although it was only Eric who skewered Ursula. Eric does not contribute to the plot, instead playing a supporting role in helping Ariel and/or Melody. However, he was the one who convinced Ariel to temporarily transform into a mermaid to help their daughter. After Morgana is defeated and encased into a sea-witch-sicle, Ariel and Eric owe Melody an apology. In the end, he was reunited with Ariel and Melody as humans and merfolk began celebrating together. This makes him the first and only father of the Disney Princes in the franchise and this movie. House of Mouse Eric appears as one of the guests in the 2001-2003 animated television series House of Mouse, usually sitting next to Ariel. His notable appearance is in the episode "Goofy's Valentine Date", where in that episode Ariel was seen staring affectionately at him. In the same scene, Goofy reads out the valentine specials on the menu, sobbing away his misery for not having a Valentine's Day date. Sofia the First: The Floating Palace Although Eric does not appear in this Disney Junior television special, he was mentioned once by Ariel when she told Sofia that Eric needed Ariel's help when his ship sunk.